


Assistance of a Dragon

by maddogkyouchan



Series: trantsukki [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23046853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maddogkyouchan/pseuds/maddogkyouchan
Summary: Tanaka has a chance meeting with a familiar looking girl.
Relationships: Tanaka Ryuunosuke/Tsukishima Kei
Series: trantsukki [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1701427
Comments: 11
Kudos: 121





	Assistance of a Dragon

It’s not rare for Tanaka to go out in the late nights of summer vacation. It doesn’t mean much, just that the air is too sticky to stay sitting at home, and a stroll to the air-conditioned convenience store quite a few roads down will do him good. Also, he’s craving popsicles and they’re all out.

Not a lot of people go to the shop after midnight. It’s almost always just him and the cashier, usually the same tired-looking college student who’s only here during break. On the off times that someone else is there, it’s usually overworked office workers buying quick meals, not that he pays that much attention to them. He does, however, pay attention to the cute girl he sees in the corner.

Tanaka assumes she’s cute, anyway, her head ducked a bit as she looks through the snacks in a display under the front window, and he curses himself for not looking through the window before coming in. She’s tall, definitely taller than him, her maxi skirt all but announcing how long her legs must be, but her messenger bag tapping against her hip gives him the idea that she’s a student, either high school or college. Which means… there’s a chance.

He makes a little noise as he walks around, hoping to catch her attention, before spotting the cord coming out from under her hood down to her jacket pocket. Headphones, then. Makes things a little harder, but, hey- all he really wants right now is to get a good look at her face. She’s just gotta be cute, he’s sure, he can just tell!

He inches around, trying to angle himself to see her, but her hood covers her face from the side pretty well. He frowns, not noticing the popsicle in his hand starting to melt. His next plan has to be… ah! He’s got it! She’s in front of the window!

Which means, when he scoots the other way to stand at a distance behind her, he gets a good look at her reflection- and his eyes meet Tsukishima Kei’s. Tsukishima’s eyes look dead behind the glasses, and Tanaka shudders before he realizes exactly what this means.

“Tsuk-”

Tsukishima turns around, taking long strides despite the skirt, and slaps a hand over Tanaka’s mouth. “Don’t.” The cashier doesn’t pay them any attention. Tsukishima leans in, expression as close to murderous as it could be without losing that dead, closed-off look- even now, he can tell Tsukishima is trying to seem unaffected. “This didn’t happen. As far as you’re concerned, this was a hallucination from the summer heat.”

“Hey, hey, it’s fine, right?” Tanaka waves it off, as though it’s no big deal that his annoying underclassman is standing in the middle of a convenience store at one in the morning in a skirt. “Let your favorite senpai buy your snacks and we’ll talk about it.”

“No,” Tsukishima says coldly.

Unfortunately for Tsukishima, that’s just how Tanaka likes his girls. “Come on, pick something or I’ll pick for you. Maybe something like Suga-san’s spicy-”

Tsukishima’s hand shoots to the side, picking up strawberry pocky from the shelf next to them, and shoves it into Tanaka’s hand. He heads to the front- after a short detour to replace his melting popsicle with a new one- and pays for them both, Tsukishima hovering near the door. He wonders if his least favorite first year is considering bolting, but Tsukishima is in the same place when he walks up with the snacks.

When they’re outside, Tanaka unwraps his popsicle. Tsukishima holds the box of pocky tightly, nearly crushing it. Crickets chirp somewhere nearby. “So, Tsukishima-chan-”

“Don’t,” Tsukishima snaps, voice tight, and loud in the dark night. “Don’t tease me, Tanaka-san. Don’t you dare.”

“I’m not teasing.” He frowns, realizing something. “Unless I’m wrong and this is just a dare. Or a failed bet. In which case I’m teasing you.”

Tsukishima lets out a short laugh, bordering on a sob, and he twists his neck to get a look. Tsukishima isn’t crying, but it looks like it’s close, misery and hatred mixing in her expression as she glares at the ground. He can only hope she doesn’t- he’s never had to comfort a crying girl before, other than his sister, and he’d probably do it all wrong.

“I’m right. Right?”

The bugs of the night seem louder in the silence, before she nods, quick and pained.

“Okay,” Tanaka says, voice quieter than she’s probably ever heard from him before. “My sister is, too.” And Tsukishima’s head jerks up at that, eyes wide. “Saeko-neesan’s been out for years, though.”

“Your… your sister is…” And it’s now that Tanaka remembers, despite Tsukishima’s height and nasty personality, she’s just a first year, fresh out of junior high.

“Yup. Transgender. I’ll introduce you sometime!” He gently nudges her with his elbow, and while she pulls away, the opposite of what he wants, at least she seems to relax just a little. “Not right now, because it’s one in the morning, and what’s a fifteen-year-old high school student doing out so late at night, anyway?”

“…shut up, Tanaka-san,” she says, her expression clearing up as she tries to put herself back together. “What’s a sixteen-year-old doing out this late, either?”

“Buying his cute kouhai pocky, even though she clearly doesn’t appreciate it-” Tsukishima’s sharp gasp cuts him off, and their eyes meet again. She looks as though she’s been punched in the gut… but like in a good way, he hopes?

After a moment, she looks down at the box of pocky and opens it, taking out a piece and biting a chunk of it off. A distraction, he thinks, but that won’t keep him off the topic! Even if she’s cute nibbling at the strawberry coating like that.

“Anyway, it’s dangerous for cute girls to be out so late, even if you’re a giant. I’ll walk you home, Tsukishima-chan.”

“Don’t call me that,” she grumbles under her breath.

“What, cute? I’m just being right again-!”

“‘Tsukishima-chan’,” she corrects. “Because if you call me that in front of the team, I’m going to break your nose with a good spike.” Even though he can totally tell she likes it…

Tanaka nods knowingly. “Sure, sure. Then what should I be using?”

“Just Tsukishima works.” She crunches through her second piece of the pocky.

“With the team, yeah, but what about now?” When her nose crinkles up in confusion, he goes for the kill. “Would it be ‘Keiko-chan’?”

Or… maybe not, from the displeasure on her face. “No. That’s too close. And it’s simpler to keep things… the same.”

Not too close but also the same? It sounds like a riddle, until he remembers when Tsukishima turned in her club application form and had to correct Suga’s mispronunciation of her given name when he read it off the sheet. “Hotaru-chan, then?”

Tsukishima bites another piece of pocky, more aggressively, and hides a smile pretty well. He can only tell because of how closely he’s monitoring her.

“Okay. I’ll walk you home, Hotaru-chan.”

“You really don’t need to do that, Tanaka-senpai.” She starts walking away, and he chases after her.

“I-” He screeches to a halt when he realizes. “Wait, say that again!”

“You don’t need to walk me home,” Tsukishima says, clearly amused.

“No, call me senpai!”

“Ah, and Tanaka-senpai was almost smooth up until that…”

“I’m so smooth!” He jumps ahead, getting in front of her and whirling around to face her. “I’m the smoothest! I got you to ease up, right?”

“Mm, I wouldn’t say that.” And yet, she seems back to normal, if not better. Scratch that, definitely better, clear from the half-smile on her face. God, she’s so-

“Hotaru-chan, let’s go out.”

She ditches Tanaka on their walk, after rebuffing his advances a few times but never saying no. It really riles him up- cold girls are the best, after all. When she’s out of view, he practically swoons. How lucky is he, to have such a secretly cute girl on his volleyball team?

Not that lucky, when he remembers that after their last practice, he tripped over a stray volleyball in the changing room while he was showing off his muscles and fell right into Tsukishima, knocking her to the ground and almost giving her a concussion. But listen… it could be worse.

And now he’s got as many chances as he could ever need to keep hitting on her. Their next practice is going to be great.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at trantsukki!


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